The present invention relates to conveyors and, in particular, to scraping apparatus for a conveyor.
Conveyors are widely used to quickly and efficiently move objects and material from one location to another. A conveyor includes a continuous loop conveyor belt that is looped over a rotatable head pulley and a rotatable tail pulley. The head pulley is powered to rotate in a direction that pulls the portion of the conveyor belt that is between the tops of the head and tail pulleys toward the head pulley to convey material to that location. The lower portion of the conveyor belt is slack and moves from the head pulley towards the tail pulley. Objects and material may be loaded onto the conveyor belt at any location or locations along the top portion thereof and are unloaded or discharged at the location of the head pulley as the conveyor belt moves downward as it travels around the head pulley. Where the belt is long or the load heavy, the belt is supported intermediate the head and tail pulleys on rollers, slider bars and other conventional support arrangements.
The efficiency of the conveyor depends upon completely discharging the load at the head pulley. Although some loads discharge simply by falling off the conveyor belt under the influence of gravity as the belt travels around the head pulley, other loads, such as loads including wet and/or sticky materials, tend to adhere to the conveyor belt and so would be carried along with the belt as it returns toward the tail pulley.
Discharge efficiency is improved by employing a scraper at the head pulley to bear against the conveyor belt as it travels around the head pulley so as to scrape material and deposits off of the conveyor belt to clean the belt, which material would otherwise adhere to the surface of the conveyor belt.
A common type of scraper assembly comprises a blade positioned transverse to the direction of belt travel or movement and bearing against the belt where it travels around the head pulley. A mounting tube supporting the blade via mounting brackets to nearby structure includes a tensioning system to bias the blade against the belt. Conventional blade mounting arrangements employ bolts, clamps, special brackets, locking arrangements and the like to attach and secure the blade to the mounting arrangement that tensions the blade against the conveyor belt.
All of these arrangements are susceptible to malfunction, wear, corrosion and stress as a result of the rigors of use, not the least of which are the effects of the dirt and grit that are ever present in many applications, for example, mining and quarrying. The necessary periodic replacement of the scraper blade which necessarily wears with use imposes additional costs and requires additional labor, and may even require the stopping of the conveyor, thereby causing the loss of production. Conventional scraper blade attachment arrangements require considerable time to clean and to release the worn or damaged scraper blade, and so delay production and add undesirable cost.
Accordingly, there is a need for a scraping apparatus that avoids the many of the problems of conventional scrapers and desirably incorporates a replaceable scraper blade that is easily and quickly removable, for example, for replacement.
To this end, the blade of the present invention comprises a blade body having a base and a blade edge distal from the base, the blade body having a substantially rectangular recess in the base thereof adapted for frictional mounting on a flange. According to another aspect of the present invention, a blade assembly comprises a mounting having a plurality of radially extending flanges, and at least one blade comprising a blade body having a base and an edge distal from the base, the blade body having at least one substantially rectangular recess in the base thereof frictionally mounted on one of the plurality of radially extending flanges.